What is the sifta arms treaty?

Answer 1

SIFTA is the spanish acronym for the treaty known as the Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of And Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunitions, Explosives, And Other Related Materials. This treaty is both brief and deeply complex. It implies a potential requirement for full gun registration, not just of weapons, but of transfers of ammunition (which would include ammo for weapons in the US that are not currently under any rigorous form of gun control, e.g. .22 rifles that use ammo that can be used in handguns, shotguns, etc.). Other issues that arise imply that a concensus of sorts is required between signatory nations and that shopment of weapons (but also possibly transfer of ownership of weapons as well), made be illegal unless the transfer applies to all signitory parties, which in turn may be interpreted to make all transfer of handguns and most other firearms to civlians an illegal act. Parts of the act also refer to United Nations regulations being a requirement (whether as a guideline or a dictum is not clear). Another factor SIFTA brings to the party is that it requires a limitation on sales based on the perceived future use of the weapons sold. This implies the potential for liability if the weapons or ammo you sell in an otherwise legal fashion and in accordance with SIFTA are later misused either by the recipients or perhaps even a third party recipient down the line. This last is rather a slippery slope in that laws that require a complex analysis of the mindset one of the parites subject to the law (as opposed to purely Mens rea or Actus Reas) are often subject to highly variable interpertation and sometimes abuse. Put simply, if I legally sell ammo to the US Army, and the Army later (accidentally, intentionally, negligently, etc.) distributes this ammo to the Sandanistas, who in turn commit UN sanctioned attrocities, I personally may be liable. On the other hand, much of this law is aimed at limiting widespread distribution of small arms and ammo to neo-governmental parties that by widespread definition, misuse such weapons. For instance, sales of small are to Somalian forces guilty of attrocities would be illegal for major firearms manufacturers as well as governments. The stunning spread of the Kalashnikov AK-47 and AK-74 in its wide number of variants woudln't have happened if this law is in place. This, like many other international laws that are wide in scope, is intentionally brief in wording. This means that the law itself says little of use in a trial context. Only once (and if) the law comes into effect (it was already defunded once by Congress), will we ever know the actual shape of this law. SIFTA will solidify once case law is established, and not before.